A California Judge Rules Disney Owes Over $345,000 in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Trial
A California judge has ruled that The Walt Disney Company must pay $345,098 for its unlicensed use of Rearden LLC’s motion capture technology.
Rearden, which is owned by inventor Steve Perlman, had been suing for as much as $38 million.
Photo: Animation magazine
According to Perlman, the technology was stolen by former Rearden employee Greg LaSalle, who then used the technology at the VFX house Digital Domain.
Eventually, LaSalle sold a license for the MOVA Contour Reality Capture to DD3, which in turn used the motion capture technology in films such as Guardians of the Galaxy, multiple Avengers films, and Disney’s remake of Beauty and the Beast.
How The Case Played Out
After a lengthy legal battle, Judge Jon Tigar ruled that Digital Domain had never properly owned the rights to MOVA as LaSalle had acted fraudulently.
The ruling allowed Rearden to sue various studios for using the technology- including Disney.
MOVA. Photo: Animation Magazine
Rearden then sued Disney in federal court, arguing that the success of their live-action Beauty and the Beast was due, in large part, to the user of the infringed upon MOVA technology.
The company argued that it had worked directly with Disney on other films that used MOVA, including Tron: Legacy and The Avengers, and thus, the company should have known that Digital Domain did not own the rights to the technology.
For their part, Disney said that they were unaware that Digital Domain was infringing on Rearden’s intellectual property and that MOVA was just one piece of a larger VFX puzzle.
In December, a jury sided with Rearden, deterring Disney from paying the tech company more than $250,000 in damages and $345,000 in profits from Beauty and the Beast.
Beauty and the Beast. Photo: Disney
Judge Tigar Rules That Disney Must Pay
Yesterday, Judge Tigar ruled that Disney had to pay $345,098 in profits from Beauty and the Beast, agreeing with the jury’s assessment.
Judge Tigar had to make his own calculation, as Rearden had previously ruled that Rearden was not entitled to a jury verdict on the issue.
Beauty and the Beast. Photo: Disney
Largely, Tigar agreed with Disney that Beauty and the Beast’s success was due to multiple factors, not just the use of MOVA.
“Disney met its burden of proving the profits from BATB were substantially attributable to factors other than the infringement,” Tigar said, “including but not limited to: fanship for the 1991 animated movie; Emma Watson’s portrayal of Belle; the story; the Disney brand; the music; the overall cast; and the thousands of individuals and hundreds of vendors that worked on the movie for more than two years.”
Beauty and the Beast. Photo: Also Disney
Neither Rearden nor Disney’s representatives responded following the verdict.
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